Redemption
by All I Dream About
Summary: Regina wants to redeem herself, but in order to do so she has to help Emma defeat Maleficent. They could have never imagined that every step in the direction of Regina's redemption is also a step toward their defeat. When everything else seems to fail, the only thing left to try might be to take a leap of faith and trust each other.
1. Forgive me for I have sinned

**AN**: so this is set after 4x11, but Robin and Marian are still around and so is Gold. Robin choose to stay with Marian and Regina moved on, she and Emma are friends and have been for a while. No Queens of Darkness (just Maleficent, but with a slightly different background).

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Forgive me for I have sinned

Regina got off the car, after she dropped Henry at school, heading to Granny's to get her usual morning coffee, when she saw a small crowd gathered around the town clock, everybody staring at the hours hand.

She got closer as she saw Emma Swan standing in front of the crowd, her back to the tower and her hands up, a slightly uncomfortable expression.

"There's nothing to see here, you can go back home or to work and carry on as usual."

She took a few more steps and everybody started turning towards her, whispering.

"What is happening here?"

"As if she didn't know already" Grumpy replied bitterly.

"The clock is still again" answered Emma with a polite smile.

Regina's gaze moved towards the clock, finding the time to be still indeed.

"We checked the clock's mechanism and stuff like that, but it's seems it stopped out of the blue without a reason" Emma added.

Regina looked around, seeing all the eyes on herself.

"I see. And of course I am the first person to be blamed" she smiled sadly. "After everything I've done, it's nice to see nothing has changed."

She held Emma's gaze for a few minutes, then she turned around and headed for the diner just as she planned minutes before.

"Regina, wait!"

When the blonde caught up she just snort without slowing down in the least.

"Sheriff Swan, I assure you I have nothing to do with whatever is happening to the clock. You can ask Henry if you want to. I spent the whole weekend with him."

"Regina, you know that's not what I was thinking. I believe you and I'm on your side."

The black Jimmy Choo's that Emma had been staring at came to an abrupt halt when Regina suddenly stopped, turning to face her.

"On my side" she echoed her words. "Just not enough to let the town know you were. Who's ever going to stand beside the Evil Queen in public, anyway? Like mother, like daughter."

Emma was confused by Regina's words, but she shook her head the second she moved, following her again.

"We need to find out who did this, figure out what happened."

"No, Sheriff Swan, you need to find out who did this. I'm not even the mayor of this town anymore, so I really don't see how could I help. And of course, aside from that, there is the fact that, well, I do not want to."

An high pitched laugh echoed in the streets, between the houses, inside the cars.

Regina knew that laugh all too well. She froze in her tracks.

She turned around quickly, standing between Emma and the cloud of black smoke forming between them and the clock tower.

"Look at that. The Evil Queen bending to her own peasants."

Regina took a deep breath. It couldn't be true.

"Luckily for you, I have come to your rescue, are you happy? I just had to stop time until I cannot reach what I want. We shall be together again very soon, my friend" she laughed again and then, for a moment, everything stand still, the witch faked a gasp. "Oh, no, wait. I think the only thing in this whole town that I am actually going to keep to myself" from the dense cloud the figure of a woman started to emerge, a long cane in her hand, made of nothing but smoked, rushed trough the air until she was close enough to Regina that she could whisper the last sentence "is your heart."

She disappeared right after that, nothing but black smoke left.

"Very soon the darkness will fall, Regina. You made a terrible mistake, bringing Aurora with you."

The cloud exploded, the smoke rushed into every street, every house, everywhere in the town. The voice that just moments before echoed in the square could now be heard in every corner of Storybrooke.

"I am coming to get what I need and then I am going to fix every wrong that has ever been done to me. If it's the last thing I do."

A moment after, the smoke was gone.

Regina kept staring at the sky, wondering how was it possible.

She trapped her, she was damn sure. They had been on the same side a long time before, but once Regina found herself casting the fist curse, she trapped her in a cave and made certain there was no way out for her to find. And, sure enough, she was still in the cave, it couldn't be otherwise.

She marched to the clock tower, Emma right behind her.

"Where are we going?"

Regina didn't answer.

Emma understood that things were really messy, because she didn't even point out that while Regina was going somewhere Emma was merely following without permission and sticking her nose where it didn't belong. She must have been really worried about the woman in the cloud, because she didn't protested at Emma's presence not even once.

"Why are we going to the library?" she was confused when they got into the tower, but it didn't last for too long. She figured it all out when she saw Regina heading for the elevator. "Oh, please not that thing."

"We need to go down there. Into the tunnels" she finally spoke, opening the elevator with a firm gesture of her hand.

Emma didn't like her previous encounter with the dragon down there and she surely would have liked to avoid a rematch. But judging by Regina's tone she didn't have much of a choice.

They went in, and while they started to descend both of them stayed silent.

"So" Emma started "what did you and Henry do this weekend?"

Regina rolled her eyes, refusing to have small talk with the woman beside her. It was the only weekend Henry spent with her since he moved back into the mansion. Their agreement was that he spent the weekends with the Charming's, but those two days Snow and David decided to get some alone time and Emma had to babysitter little Neal, so Henry stayed home, happy to spend some time with his mother without having to go to school in the morning. The watched movies, one being Henry's all time favorite Lilo&amp;Stich, he showed all the comics he had been reading and Regina helped him study for a test. The normality of the previous days had been almost perfect.

Almost.

She was Henry's family, but so was Emma, they both could see that when he wasn't with them both he was always missing something.

"Focus, miss Swan" was the only answer. "We might have to use magic, you need to be ready if we have to cross that bridge."

"Ah. Funny" she snorted. "As you command, your Majesty" she whispered.

The elevator opened up. The first one to step off was Regina, chin up, shoulders straight, and Emma was never going to understand how the hell she could have that much confidence while walking on five inch heels. On the other hand, Regina had so much composure doing pretty much anything.

She was the fist one to get into the cave, Emma right behind. They were both ready to face whatever was waiting there, but that was the problem after all: there was nothing to fight.

"Empty."

Emma didn't realize why that single word said so quietly had been enough to make her wish she could hug the people she cared about one last time.

"She ran away."

"That explains the black smoke."

"We need to find Aurora and your parents."

Emma nodded, following her when she started to walk again.

"You know, for someone who doesn't want to help you're going through a lot of trouble" a soft smile played on her lips.

"Shut up, miss Swan."

"Regina."

The name was said firmly. The brunette turned toward her, looking into her eyes.

After Neverland, after the Snow Queen, after everything they faced together, she could acknowledge it was a little weird to keep calling her that.

"Emma" she corrected herself.

They became friends, thanks to Emma being so stubborn and making Regina trusting her again after she brought Robin Hood's nearly deceased wife there from the past.

Emma remembered perfectly the moment Marian returned and the way Robin rushed to her side leaving Regina to deal with the pain. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right everybody gave up when it concerned her, just because of her past. Emma was never going to do that, she was going to keep fighting so that Regina could have her happy ending, whatever it was.

When the left the library, the crowd standing in front of the clock tower had doubled.

As soon as she saw them, Snow walked toward them.

"What happened? We heard the same voice all over the city. And the clock is standing still once again."

Emma turned to look at Regina.

"She's back."

Snow looked at them frowning, moving her gaze from one to the other, not daring to ask the question on her mind.

"Maleficent."

They had gathered pretty much the all city into the town hall. Regina was standing by herself, only Henry was beside her. The hall was filled with worried whispers, everybody with a different hypothesis and not even one of them willing to keep it to themselves.

When Snow got up and began to talk, suddenly they fall quiet.

"As most of you might have heard by now, the tower clock is still again. We are stuck once more."

Whispers filled the room again, until the woman cleared her voice, and the noise stopped at once.

"A lot of you have been asking who is responsible for this and some of you jumped to the wrong conclusions very quickly" she not so subtly looked in Grumpy's direction, but the dwarf just shrug his shoulders. "Anyway, shortly after that the one actually responsible came clean showing herself to the whole town. So is with great sorrow that I have to announce to you all that Maleficent is now free."

Nobody dared to speak, not even a whispered word.

"We do not think she will fight against us very soon, nor we think she is going to disappear forever. All that we ask is that you return to your homes tonight and to your works tomorrow. There is no need for panic right now."

"So we should just do nothing at all" Ruby cut her off.

"Looks like the thing we tried with the Snow Queen. And Cora. And Pan" Belle listed. "It didn't work out so well the other times."

"Maybe we should be the ones to go after her this time" the Blue fairy said calmly. "Trying to achieve a compromise, to avoid a battle and victims."

"If we can even find her, I think that going against her might just mean there would be some victims anyway" Aurora stepped in. "Believe me."

"So we let her choose where to start and who she can kill first?" Grumpy cut her off. "I say we stay together until we find her."

The room was quickly filled again with confused noises.

Snow and David looked at each other, clueless on what they should do at that point to please everyone.

The one to stand up and to step in was Regina.

"If I may, I just want to point out that going after Maleficent, while it might be the only effective weapon to gain her surrender, might also be very dangerous and quickly turn into our own painful defeat."

For several second the room was utterly quiet.

"Well, you heard her" Grumpy immediately chimed in. "If the Evil Queen says not to go seek Maleficent, there is no doubt that that is exactly what we ought to do."

Regina rolled her eyes, snorting. Henry got up immediately, ready to defend his mother.

"If you don't want my advice, at least hear sheriff Swan's answer."

"My answer to what?" Emma asked, take off guard.

"Who was the only person Maleficent threatened this morning, miss Swan? The only one Maleficent is interested in, whose heart she wants to steal, the only one in danger?"

Emma hesitated. She wished, more than anything, she could lie or avoid the question. Because she knew what Regina was trying to do. She didn't left her any choice, she could do nothing if not answer, all the eyes lingering on her left her no room to lie.

"You, Regina."

"So you see" she finished like it was obvious. "You can go back safely to your houses, to your jobs, go on with your lives just as Snow suggested. The only person in this room that is in any danger at the moment, is me. I bet nobody will be willingly going after Maleficent now."

A long minute of silence followed Regina's sentence. A smug grin formed on her lips.

"That's what I thought."

"Doesn't change anything to me" Ruby stood up. "Regina is one of us now, she deserves our protection, she helped us defeat Cora and Pan and Ingrid. It's our turn to protect her."

"Miss Lucas, sit down" Regina whispered, her attempt to keep them all away from a suicidal mission was just about to get blown up by a little girl in a short skirt. It was so very frustrating.

"Ruby, you fought a war against her. How can you forget that so easily?" Ashley asked.

"I didn't forget the war against her" she chimed in fiercely. "But I didn't forget the three I fought beside her either. If you aren't willing to protect her, you shouldn't be so eager to get her help when she's the only one who can save you."

"Fighting now is still a mistake, Ruby" Snow told her. "We can take shifts to protect Regina, we can organize groups and start looking for Maleficent, but we are not going to start another war."

"I do not need your help. I can manage perfectly fine, thank you very much" Regina cut off her speech. "I can find Maleficent, make a deal with her and none of you will be getting their hands dirty this time."

Snow shook her head no, but Regina wasn't willing to negotiate.

"Snow" she said firmly. "I have to do this. I have to. I'm not proud of the things I did in the past, the pain I've caused, the people I've" her eyes fell briefly on the boy next to her, reminding her that it wasn't the moment to confess all her sins. "The people I've hurt. I will never be able to fix every mistake I've made. If I was to live ten other lives, not even then I could be again the good person I once upon a time have been, the one you've met all those years ago. I can't go back. But I don't want to have innocent blood on my hands anymore. Maleficent is my problem, let me fix that, let me have that chance. It's the only one I'm going to get. It's the only chance I have to redeem myself."

Without another word she gently squeezed Henry's shoulder, guiding him out of the town hall toward their car.

Once they were inside, he took her hand.

I am proud of you, mom. I'm so proud you want to be good. But you have to know you are not alone. We are never going to let you do this."

"What do you mean, we?"

Henry smiled as someone knocked on the driver's window of Regina's Mercedes. She lowered it just to find Emma standing there.

"I won't give up on you, Regina. I've told you. We won't give up on you" she corrected herself, stepping aside to allow Regina to see Snow and David standing behind her.

Henry's hold tightened on her hand.

"We are a family, mom. Nobody gets left behind-"

"-or forgotten, I know" Regina got the quote right away.

She wasn't used to how things had changed yet.

"We want to help too" Ruby's voice caught their attention.

Next to Snow and David there were Ruby and an Asian girl Regina remembered seeing only once at Robin's camp.

"I dealt with Maleficent once before" she said. "With her curses and her victims. I want to help you the way you did with Emma and Snow when they came back from the Enchanted Forest, if it's alright with you" she took a step forward. "My name is Mulan."

Henry's face light up.

"Mulan! You're like my favorite princess ever!"

"Hey" Snow protested.

"Sorry, grandma" she whispered, realizing his mistake. "But Mulan was the best warrior in all of China" he kept going with his voice lowered so much he could barely hear himself.

"Thanks, Emma" Regina said. "I know this is because of you. Even if I will have to put up with the two idiots."

"Hey" Snow protested a second time. "You do realize I am still here, right?"

Emma smiled to the woman in the car, watching as she turned the Mercedes on, just to see her stop a few feet ahead.

"And, miss Lucas, please wear a skirt that cover at least your underwear, if you must be there. The woman wearing men clothes and the impulsiveness prince can come, as long as the secret teller stays home."

Emma smiled, finally recognizing her Regina, waiting for the nickname she was gonna give her.

"Mulan, you are welcome as well, of course" she finished, before taking off again in the direction of Mifflin Street.

Emma snorted incredulously, raising her hands to her waist.

"So I'd be the woman with men clothes? I do not-" she looked down, to her black boots, her tight jeans, her with shirt and her leather jacket. After all, her clothes surely weren't as feminine as Regina's usual outfits. She rolled her eyes, snorting again as she heard Ruby laughing. "Not. One. Word."

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**AN:** Let me know what you think, this is my first story and english is not my first language so I apologize for any mistake. Thank you very much!


	2. Hold on to Vengeance for it'll be Streng

Sorry for the delay, I'll try to publish next one faster. Enjoy!

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Hold on to Vengeance for it'll be Strength

When Emma got into her office, fifteen minutes late compared with her schedule, wasn't surprised to see Regina sitting on her desk, cross-legged. She was wearing a black mid-thigh dress, but her position on the desk had reduced the length of the dress of some inches. That clothing was incredibly short for the woman who had suggested Ruby to put on longer skirts the previous night.

"Good morning, Miss Swan."

"Your Majesty" she replied.

"Regina is fine" she murmured. "That title raises fear whenever it's spoken."

Regina's mind went back to the town hall meeting. When Snow mentioned the name Maleficent silence immediately fell upon the room. Once upon a time Regina's name would have caused the same reaction, but after the curse had been broken, it just dragged along a wake of resentment whenever it was whispered.

Emma noticed that she had brought up unpleasant memories, so she tried to divert her immediately.

"So, where shall we start?" she asked with a little smile.

Regina sighed, climbing down the desk.

"Well, first of all we have to figure out where she's hiding. The faster way is a locating spell. But we need something which belongs to her."

"But where can we find it?" Emma asked.

Regina sighed, glancing down and inclining the head on one side. Right then Emma realized where their journey had to start.

"Gold."

They were getting out of the station when they run into David, Snow, Ruby and Mulan. Regina opened her mouth to protest against her step-daughter presence, but she cut her off.

"I don't care if you don't want my help, Regina. I'm not going to give up."

The woman bit her tongue and tried not to tell her something resentful and sharp. She started walking towards Gold's shop without another word. When all six of them walked into his store he was more then a bit surprised.

"Let me guess. Our rescue team against Storybrooke newest threat. And some special guests" his eyes fixed on Regina.

She wasn't in the least disturbed by it.

"I need something hers, for a locating spell."

Gold smiled.

"Why should I help you, why should I care?"

"I'll do any deal you want me to" Emma cut him off. "Just name it."

"Any deal? That's interesting" he smiled wider.

"No, we're not making a deal" Regina said firmly. Then she smiled, leaning on the counter and getting closer to Gold. "Ask me again, Rumple."

He looked around, suddenly wanting to laugh at the woman in front of him. He smiled wickedly and then bend forward slightly.

"Why should I help you?"

Regina's chin rose up, she pointed every word.

"Who is asking you to help us? You're a married man now. Everything you own is only half yours. The right question is, why should Belle help us?"

The girl, who had been listening to the conversation since the beginning, peeked through the doorstep from the backroom right before stepping in.

"And the answer" Regina went on "is that she's going to hel us because we're trying to keep the city safe from someone who might want to hurt some friends of the happy family over there" she briefly glanced over at the Charming's. "Aren't you, Belle?"

"Just give them what they want, Rumple. Please, do the right thing" she got closer to him, taking his hand in her own. "For me."

After a few seconds he nodded. Regina knew exactly where to hit in that moment, since their newly renewed love. She was still too good at manipulating people and it was hard to believe there was something different in her. To Rumple, she was the person he had always saw in her, the person he forged.

Moving his wrist sharply he made a crystal ball appear in front of them. Well, what was left of it anyway. It was broken on top and the gold frame was crippled. It looked like it was just about to fall apart. Regina recognized it immediately. It was the globe Maleficent always took with her, on top of her cane, in which she kept her most valuable curse. The one Regina broke to steal the sleeping curse she cast on Snow.

She carefully took it in her hands, but when the locating spell she was whispering settled upon the globe, something went wrong. In front of them suddenly appeared three identical spheres.

"What's happening?" Emma asked.

Regina sighed, anger in her eyes.

They all turned to look at Gold.

"It's not his fault" Regina said. "It's Maleficent. While there is no way to elude a locating spell without very radical measures, it is indeed possible to cover up the tracks in a few ways."

"So just one of the three balls is going to actually bring us to Maleficent" Ruby concluded.

"Exactly. The other two just lead to a place she's been recently and left, let's say, a scent, a piece of herself."

"Like the smoke figure in front of the library?" Emma asked.

"Like that, yes. But more realistic and vivid."

"So what do we do now?" David asked.

"We split up" Emma decided. "We can't just waste this spell. We can go in couples and meet each other back at my office when the spell wears off. Just don't go against Maleficent on your own if you find her, or even better, don't go against her, period."

As soon as David looked at Snow she nodded, ready to follow the globe that left the store first. Ruby then smirked, grabbing Mulan's hand and dragging her to the second globe.

"Come on Mulan. It seems like we're forming _that_ kind of couples."

"I heard that, Ruby."

She didn't even respond to Emma, exiting the shop.

"Well, looks like it's just the two of us" she said to Regina with a smile.

Regina immediately followed the third sphere. "Let's not waste anymore time."

"We've been walking for hours" Emma complained.

"Barely a couple" the brunette argued.

They had been wondering in the woods, the globe had left the traveled path almost right away. After a couple of moments in silence, the blond started talking again.

"You do know it's going to be us, right? The couple that finds her."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, you wouldn't have sent Ruby with Mulan if you really believed they could have stumbled into Maleficent. Neither one of them has magic, they wouldn't stand a chance against her."

"Neither your parents got magic."

"They always find a way to make it."

Regina sighed. "Nobody knows that better than I do, trust me" she said with a smirk. "Anyway, it's not very accurate to say Ruby doesn't have magic. Her ability to transform into a wolf is very rare and envied by most. But anyway, it's safe to say you don't have to worry, this is just a trick, she can't be in three places at one time. But she has to move very fast between the places she wants the spheres to land, appearing and disappearing in each of them until we are exactly where she wants us."

"So you're saying we're walking right into her trap?"

"Just the two of us, dear. She's looking for me, so she'll leave the others alone."

Emma stopped abruptly when she realized was Regina was telling her. Then she run to catch up to her.

"You let them go because you didn't want them to be in danger, none of them. You didn't want to be helped since the beginning" she was thinking out loud.

"I'm sorry, but I have no intention to let someone else day because of me."

"Then why did you bring me along?" she smiled smugly. "Is this your way of telling me we're finally friends?"

Regina laughed, shaking her head softly.

"Who says I'm bringing you with me?" she asked cryptically. "We aren't there yet. Do you know the exact spot of the woods in which we are right now, Emma?"

She looked carefully at her surroundings, but it sure wasn't easy to tell trees apart from each other, and everything looked just the same as the rest of the woods. She was too busy focusing on Regina to pay attention where they were going.

"Well, no I don't. But we're already here anyway, so I don't really need to."

Regina stopped, looking at her for a long moment.

"I'll see you tonight, Emma" she smiled weakly. "I'll be fine, I'll come back home. You can tell Henry I promised you that."

The blond seemed puzzled, not understanding what was going on.

Regina looked deeply into her eyes one last time, as if she was about to add something else. But at the last moment she changed her mind, shaking her head. With a sharp gesture of her hand, Emma felt herself be wrapped up in a weird sensation, as if her whole body was into some sort of hot and dense liquid. She felt like she was being transported for a few seconds and when she opened her eyes again, she was standing on her office.

"Damn."

She knew Emma was going to be mad at her, but she didn't care. She was not going to risk the life of the only friend she had in that town, and maybe the only one at all, just because she was the only other person she knew with magical powers. Well, except for Gold. But in what parallel universe was Gold ever going to help her defeat Maleficent?

She laughed at her own thought.

She had to go on by herself from there. It was just the way it was supposed to be. It was something she had to do on her own.

It was her fight and it was only right that she was the one who fought it. That was the only way she ever went to every battle she was forced to go to. By herself.

And, after all, it was her redemption, not Emma's

"Emma?"

"David. What are you doing here?"

He and Snow were completely drenched, they were sitting on the chairs in Emma's office, waiting for news from the other couples.

"We followed the sphere to the dock, but then it fell down as if the spell had worn off. We turned around and there stood Maleficent."

"What?" Emma asked, frowning. "We thought she was coming after us."

"Well it would make sense. When she saw it was us she pushed us into the water, saying she had no time for us and that she had to go steal the magic she needed to defeat Regina from someone at least vaguely useful and disappeared."

Emma took a breath, closing her eyes.

"I think Regina might have been aware of that, she transported me here because she didn't want me to get hurt or be in their crossfire."

"We think Maleficent might want your magic to hurt Regina, but we have no idea of how she wants to steal it."

Emma sighed. Things were getting more and more complicated.

Regina kept walking, deep in her own thoughts. She knew that without Emma she was pretty much walking towards her death sentence. But she couldn't bring herself to put in danger the blonde that in the last few months had always been by her side.

At first, Regina was annoyed and nagging, but she slowly got used to that friendship. After all, she and Emma shared the most precious thing for them: Henry. Quite often Emma stopped at the mansion after she brought Henry home from school and the three of them had dinner together, doing small talk without bringing up Regina's past or the things she had done. She had to admit she grew fonder, however slowly, of the girl that pushed so much to be her friend at first.

She still remembered when they'd met at Granny's and Emma offered to buy her a drink just to then proceed to apologized for Robin, who chose to go back to his wife. Regina had laughed, because it was something only Emma could have apologized for. She responded that she didn't really see what Robin's decisions had to do with her and that it didn't matter. She wasn't in love with him.

Wandering in the woods, Regina laughed at herself.

Not even her true love, she had been able to love. Not even him.

To Regina, it was a clear sign that being in love wasn't her thing, wasn't her fate. She was never good at love stories after all. The only man in her life she had truly loved, the one she was always going to be there for, was Henry. If Robin had taught her anything, it was that. Nobody could fill Regina's heart the way even thinking about her little prince did.

Her life without Henry was meaningless.

And it was really ironic, because if she hadn't done the things she regretted so much, if Emma had never been born and if she hadn't broken her curse, she would have never had her son. And he was pretty much the only person Regina was really certain she couldn't live without.

_And yet._

And yet, something was missing.

That romantic kind of love, the one that made her want to throw up everytime she looked at the Charming's. It was disgusting, yes, and yet it made curious at the same time. She wanted to feel it, just once, she wanted to feel loved like that.

Her mind went to Daniel. Something like fifty years had gone by since he passed away. His memory was still strong and she knew they loved each other. But she also knew that however stong, that feeling was nothing like the one bonding Snow and David. Long nights awake thinking about that very topic made her realize that maybe Daniel wasn't her true love after all, but neither was Robin.

She had give up a long time before that she was never going to find it.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the little sphere had stopped until she bumped into it.

She was paralyzed as she watched it fell to the ground.

In the corner of her eyes she saw a figure slowly approaching her, a woman with a long dark red dress and a cane.

"Maleficent."

"Regina. It's just the two of us, at last."

A few seconds after her parents, Robin Hood and one of his companions, Will Scarlet, walked into Emma's office holding up Mulan, who could barely stand on her own.

"What the hell happened?" Emma asked, rushing to her side.

"Belle found her in the library when she went to open it a few minutes ago, we were walking by and heard her scream."

"Mulan, are you ok?"

The girl nodded. "I just hit my head and I think my arm is broken."

"We need to get you to the hospital."

"We told her the same thing, but she said it was vital that she got to you as soon as possible."

Emma put her hands on the girl's shoulders. It was in that moment that she noticed something was missing. Or rather, someone.

"Where's Ruby?"

Mulan took a painful breath.

"She said" a sharp pain on her arm distracted her for a moment. "She said that she needed the kind of magic she owned."

"She needed it to do what?" Emma asked in just a barely audible whisper.

Mulan took a few shattered breaths, finally managing to respond.

"To revive the beast."

"You surely took your sweet time, dear" Regina teased her, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well, I've been a little busy with that pretty girl of yours."

Regina's smile immediately faded away, leaving no trace of its presence behind. Her expression became fierce.

"What did you do to her?" she asked with an angry note in her voice she thought she'd lost.

"Oh, that's wonderful Regina, you still got that. The anger, the longing for revenge. Do you remember what I always used to tell you? Hold on to vengeance for it'll be the only thing that will keep you company after everyone else has left you. It seems like we are finally there. Tell me, did my advice help you? Hold on to vengeance for it'll be strength."

Regina didn't respond, she bit her tongue and tried to figure out what would have been a smart move to make at that point.

"I will go pay a visit to your pretty girl now and I will take away her magic. But I promise you I will return her to you as soon as I'm done. I know how you get when other people play with your toys."

Regina decided right then to throw caution to the wind and she rose up her hands, trying to hit the witch in front of her and throw her against one of the trees behind her, but she was faster and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke before Regina's spell could get to her.

"Damn it" Regina scream filled the air. But after a few moments the anger dissolved and her eyes were clouded by remorse. "Emma" she whispered to herself. If she had kept her closer, let her stay by her said, Maleficent would have never gotten to her.

Crossing her hands in front of herself she transported into the sheriff office, with no idea how to tell what happened to the two idiots.

The first thing she saw as soon as she was in the office, were two beautiful green eyes staring at her.

"Emma."

"Regina, thank God you're fine."

"I thought Maleficent got you. She said" she started, stopping abruptly.

* * *

**AN:** Let me know what you think!

She glanced at the presents, confused, noticing Mulan and Ruby weren't n the room. Her questioning eyes settled upon the blonde.

"Ruby's gone. Maleficent was after her the whole time" Emma whispered.

And Regina cursed her name, for the umpteenth live of an innocent lost because of her.


End file.
